POLICE BLOTTER: Police remove harassing man from bus

Published 10:00 pm, Thursday, February 3, 2011

A 74-year-old Newcastle man harassed a Metro bus driver and was cited for unlawful bus conduct then arrested for an outstanding warrant on Jan. 18.

Sometime before 3:30 p.m., the Newcastle man asked the bus driver to lower the passenger lift on the front of the bus so he could enter. The bus driver did so and then the man called the bus driver a racial slur while walking down the aisle to his seat. The bus driver confronted the man and the man said it was his right to call him a racial slur. The bus driver then demanded that the man get off the bus, but he refused to leave. The police were called and they eventually took the man off the bus. It was discovered that the man had an outstanding warrant for the same kind of unlawful bus conduct on Jan. 11.

Man robbed of $2,000

A Renton man was robbed of almost $2,000 after leaving the Renton Transit Center around 6:30 a.m. on Jan. 20.

The 59-year-old man told police he had just dropped his wife off at the center and was driving back to his home when his car started shaking. He pulled over to check the oil and a man approached him from behind. Putting something up against his back, the suspect told him not to move and to get down on the ground. Then the suspect took the man’s wallet, which he claims had $1,900 in it for rent. This happened in the 600 block of Sunset Boulevard. No suspects were located.

Teen flees abductor

A 17-year-old Renton boy was the victim of an attempted child abduction at about 7 p.m. on Jan. 20.

The boy told police he was walking home in the 500 block of Maple Avenue Southwest when he noticed a man following him. The boy confronted the man and the man in turn asked what the boy’s name was. The boy wouldn’t tell him his name, so he said the man “flinched,” or moved toward him in a threatening way. The boy then punched the man in the face and ran home.

Police did a check of the area and were unable to locate the man.

Businesses burglarized

Two Renton businesses owned my the same person were burglarized overnight on Jan. 14.

Tienda Latina, a convenience store and Lavanderia Latina, a laundromat, share an interior connecting door and were damaged and burglarized sometime between 10:30 p.m., Jan. 14, and 7:30 a.m., Jan. 15. Someone used a large stone to break the front window of the laundromat. Then they used a large green scale in the laundromat to break the interior connecting door to the convenience store. Jewelry, cosmetics and about $150 were stolen. Police were given three possible suspects by the owner and their descriptions.

Elderly scam victim

A Renton elderly woman fell victim to an apparent scam targeting the elderly on Jan 13.

A man claiming to be from the water company tricked her into gaining access to her house in the 200 block of Seneca Place Northwest around 3 p.m.

He was wearing an orange construction type vest and had a white badge attached to it. He had her turn on faucets and bang on a pipe, all while he talked to someone else on a cell phone. The woman became suspicious and asked the man to leave and he did. She contacted police because she felt he was casing her house. Police identified the scam as having been featured in a KOMO 4 news story about the same type of set-up used on elderly people in Seattle.

Threatening phone calls

A Graham woman received threatening phone calls from her ex-boyfriend on Jan. 21.

Police were called to a coffee shop on Sunset Boulevard Northeast to a report of domestic violence.

The 21-year-old woman said she received a number of phone calls from her ex-boyfriend in which he demanded to know who she was dating, called her names and threatened to kill her. A co-worker tried to intervene, but only got the suspect to hang up after they told the man the woman had called police. The woman tried previously to file a no-contact order against the man but was told he didn’t reside in the state.

Woman doused with urine

A former boyfriend doused his ex-girlfriend with urine in a domestic dispute on Jan. 21.

The 18-year-old Kent woman went to the Fred Meyer parking lot, 17601 108th Ave. S.E., with her cousin to meet her ex-boyfriend, so she could return a movie to him they had watched together. The two had dated for four months before they broke up, because she said he was not nice and made threats against her mother. When she arrived in the lot, she drove up to the 19-year-old boy and rolled down her window. They exchanged words and he splashed her with a bottle full of urine, getting her hair, face, shoulder and front of her body wet. Then she said he threw the plastic bottle at her and retreated in a waiting vehicle. Police cited the boy for investigation of fourth-degree assault and referred the case to the prosecutor.